Indonesia's Sriwijaya Air (SJ, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) is to open a private airport and MRO facility on Bintan Island, with financial backing from Gallant Venture. News site Kontan reports that the 3,000 metre runway, MRO and terminal are due for completion in 2019 and the facility will be operational in 2020.
"We've conducted the land preparation; we're now working on the runway and airport development," Abdul Wahab, General Manager of PT Bintan Resort Cakrawala – which is owned by Gallant – told Kontan.
The developers hope that the USD150 million project will increase tourism to the Indonesian island from 600,000 per year to 2 – 3 million.
The second stage of the airport will include its development into a regional hub and the addition of a flight training academy, while a proposed third stage would add a secondary runway.
The new airport will compete with Bintan's other airport, Tanjung Pinang, which is however not convenient to the northern area where the island's resorts are located. Currently, most visitors fly into Singapore Changi and catch a ferry across the Singapore Strait.
The site had previously been linked to Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta), which signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Gallant Venture in 2014 to develop an airport and MRO facility there. However, due to a number of obstacles, Garuda has reportedly shifted its focus to Batam, according to Batam news site Tribun.
